Coming from publisher Fireshine Games and developer Metronomik, No Straight Roads takes players to the Vinyl City – a fictional location where the music is the only source of electricity. The entire power distribution industry is solely owned by the No Straight Roads organization or NSR for short.
From time to time, the organization holds “minute of fame” type competitions to attract new talented musicians. NSR has categorically abandoned all musical directions for a long time with the sole exception being electronic dance music or EDM. This is where our heroes step in: guitarist Mayday and drummer Zuke, passionate and young rockers, ready to take over the city by the storm.
Mayday and Zuke are the main characters that we will be playing as. They are a wonderful indie-rock band and, although their personalities and characters clash, they make a beautiful duet.
After the clear tempering from NSR management as well as a series of power outages hitting all but the richest neighborhoods of Vinyl City, our heroes decide to dethrone NSR as the city’s premier corporation by battling its best representatives and climbing the music charts to bring the rock (and electricity) back to their city.
Zuke’s personal story is long, well-written and filled with details, while Mayday somewhat lacks in that department, her own character development taking a second place in the story. Due to this fact, it is rather difficult to understand what connects our heroes and keeps Bunk Bed Junction (the name of the band) going.
The protagonists start an aggressive campaign against NSR by crashing concert halls which, at the beginning of the game, feels a little too aggressive for a city under the corporation’s thumb. As the story unfolds, you get attached to the duo and get introduced to more side characters that will provide you with interesting dialogues and expand on the story of our heroes with beautiful touches.
In terms of gameplay, players can expect to find a musical 3D action-slasher. Our two heroes are fighting their enemies with musical instruments solo or in local co-op. As you take one character out for a spin, the second one becomes inactive and simply tags along with the chosen one. As mentioned above, Zuke is a drummer while Mayday is a guitarist and, utilizing their instruments and skills, they are fighting for the freedom and electricity of Vinyl City.
The game world consists of several locations, stylish and diverse, reflecting the style of the next Stage Boss that will open as you bring defeat to NSR bosses. And, although the locations are not very big, they are filled with secrets, collectibles and neat picturesque places. The gameplay can be summed up as a series of boss fights that take place on stylish arenas mixed with some short breaks for rest, city exploration and character enhancements.
As you advance through the game, the heroes acquire new skills and musical tricks that can be further upgraded. You can tackle the enhancements over at the Base – an underground HQ for the band. Mayday’s guitar and Zuke’s drumsticks can be covered with stickers, with the upgrades being made through your fans.
The most important part of the game are the musical rhythm battles. Not only our heroes but also the enemies are tied to the beat. Each boss has their own attack pattern as do all the little enemies you will encounter on your way.
Even though in-game bosses are technically a part of the larger NSR corporations that preaches the electronic dance music, each has their own sub-style, be it space trance, neoclassicism, electro-pop, etc. A part of the story-driven face offs between Zuke and Brother will feature intense but beautiful rap.
The music of the game has been written and arranged by real masters of sound design such as Wan Hazmer (Final Fantasy XV) and Daim Dziauddin (Street Fighter V). The OST has a place in everyone’s playlists, perfectly combining the feel of the game with the style of locations and fights.
Every single song has multiple variations that change slightly over the course of the boss fight, with each phase having its own visual style as well. The music changes according to the boss’ health bar status, your skills and hits, depending on whether you win or lose. NSR style, hybrid style, rock style and a couple of other types of melodies that will accompany you during the big face offs.
In combat, our heroes wield the guitar and drumsticks, repelling attacks of bosses and enemies, inflicting musical blows and more. The action is designed around the style of the arena that it takes place on. You can call a hair or rockers to attack the boss or perhaps reflect the boss’ atack back at them and so much more.
There are a few ways to tackle boss fights, ranging from normal to the mode where you can only damage the boss by reflecting their attacks and more. Check them all out to enjoy the variations of the battle themes to the fullest!
The game’s visuals seem quite peculiar at first, with characters sporting giant hands and tiny heads, giant bosses and small people.
The locations follow a unique style to match the each boss and theme of the game, filled with neon lights, thematically furnished with a variety of decorations, easy to remember for a long time even after you’ve finished that particular part of the game.
Bright characters and bosses are a form of art in their own right, designed with imagination and style in mind. One of the bosses you will be facing is a vocaloid-mermaid with a USB-trident and no, I’m not making it up. The battle against her will take you to the underwater scene. Or how about a DJ obsessed with space? The fight against him will take place in a planetarium to match the theme.
The bosses’ metamorphosis during combat are simply masterpieces. If you like the movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, you will likely greatly appreciate the style of this game. Every fight is a marvelous combination of visual madness, humor, shapes and sounds.
One of the main minuses of the game is the unresponsive camera. During the free roaming, you can wrestle it under your control, but during the boss fights the camera becomes static which is very uncomfortable.
To sum it up, No Straight Roads is a game with beautiful visual and musical design, filled with side-tickling humor and banter, spectacular battles but with a pretty average gameplay overall. It will take you roughly 5 to 7 hours to beat the game, but you will likely get a lot of enjoyment out of it. For lovers of beautiful and resonant games, this is a worthy purchase.
Note: the game is a verified purchase by the author. Since the initial release, the game received the updated Encore Edition – check out the Steam page to learn more.
- Similar to: Soundfall
